Grollo stares down building union

Grocon chief executive Daniel Grollo says CFMEU leaders have agreed to an “immediate and unconditional” end to their blockade of a Melbourne building site. Photo: Wayne Taylor

Mark Skulley and Mark Ludlow

The building union last night agreed to an immediate end to its illegal blockade of Grocon building sites in Melbourne, a victory for the tough strategy taken by chief executive ­Daniel Grollo.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union agreed to back down following secret talks with the building group.

Negotiations over the disagreements that triggered the dispute will continue next week.

Mr Grollo said the union’s leaders agreed to an “immediate and unconditional” end to the blockade of the Myer building site that has disrupted central Melbourne for over a week.

He said the company would now discuss “whatever issues they say they have”. Mr Grollo said the Grocon employees had “no issues” with their conditions and the company was happy for Fair Work Australia to be involved if the union wanted.

The national secretary of the CFMEU’s construction division, Dave Noonan, portrayed the deal as the same offer made by the union earlier, after talks mediated by Fair Work Australia, to call off the blockade for two weeks to allow negotiations about the appointment of safety delegates at the site. The union later offered to drop the two-week timeframe. Mr Grollo declined the offer and pressed on with court action against the union.

The dispute centred on the appointment of safety delegates, who have substantial powers in the workplace.

“It’s essentially the same deal that he has rejected twice previously,” Mr Noonan said. “We will get on with the issues of substance and we will leave the spin to Daniel.”

The dispute emerged as a test of the federal government’s industrial relations system and its decision to replace the Australian Building and Construction Commission with a body with weaker powers. The blockade, which had spread to other Grocon sites around Melbourne and triggered union rallies in Sydney and Brisbane, should end today.

Mr Grollo thanked the Victorian government and police, but did not mention Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten, who tried to help resolve the dispute by getting both sides into negotiations with Fair Work Australia president Iain Ross.

The Victorian Supreme Court is due to rule soon on whether the CFMEU is in contempt of court because of the blockade. The union could be liable for millions of ­dollars in fines.

Business leaders are worried illegal industrial action in the construction industry is increasing. New data out yesterday showed working days lost to industrial ­disputes has jumped to an eight-year high.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said 101,700 days were lost in the June quarter to industrial disputes, a jump from the 35,800 days in the previous three-month period.

Two-thirds of the days lost were in education, healthcare and social work as Coalition governments in Victoria, NSW and Queensland tried to cut wages bills by reducing pay rises and cutting jobs.

These struggles involving teachers and nurses are continuing and, apart from Victoria, are being conducted outside Labor’s national Fair Work legal system. All states, including Victoria, negotiate wages with their public servants.

Legal strikes over new workplace deals in the Queensland coal industry accounted for some of increase in time lost, but the current “hot spots” concern illegal stoppages in construction in Melbourne and Brisbane.

In Brisbane, Fair Work Australia banned union action at the $1.4 billion Brisbane Children’s Hospital project for six months.

The tribunal singled out Dennis Strano, known as “The Agitator”, who it said was an agent for the Builders Labourers Federation in Queensland. Mr Strano was arrested for shining a laser in the face of a security guard and possibly a construction manager during an ­illegal strike at the new children’s hospital, it said. Evidence was presented in the case that officials from other unions disrupting the project said: “We need to tie up as many com­panies as possible before Labor are out.”

The tribunal ordered an end to industrial action for at least six months on the project, which is being built by Lend Lease’s Abigroup unit. Little or no work has been done on site for a month.

The tribunal ordered the CFMEU and its members to stop industrial action at the project on August 6. The dispute has cost about $300,000 a day and more than $6 million, Abigroup said.

The tribunal heard two union officials attended a concrete pour on August 10 with another unidentified man in a black hood.

“The concrete workers felt intimidated by the presence of the group and the concrete pour was cancelled,” Fair Work Australia senior deputy president Peter Richards said. “This was met with applause from those who had assembled in proximity to the pour.”

The Fair Work decision said the dispute had led to one arrest and that communications had been “unashamedly abusive”.

The union was deregistered federally in 1986 after a royal commission into corruption in the industry.

Many workers gathered each morning and then left with no work being done.

The new orders are broader and cover the CFMEU and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union and run to March, 2013.

Mr Richards found evidence that members of the CFMEU and the CEPU engaged in unprotected industrial action and were encouraged by their unions.

The tribunal heard evidence that Abigroup manager David Vicenzino asked CFMEU organiser Bud Neiland to explain what was happening and was told: “We need to tie up as many companies as possible before Labor are out”.

The BLF and Queensland branches of the CFMEU and CEPU did not comment yesterday.

Mr Richards found that Mr Strano acted as an “effective agent” of the BLF and had been praised in a union magazine for his role in an earlier dispute where he was referred to by the nickname “The Agitator”.

He said Mr Strano was seen shining a laser at a security guard and a light was shone in the face of an Abigroup manager. “It appears Mr Strano was subsequently arrested and released on bail because of his conduct in this regard.”

A spokesman for the Queensland police declined to comment.

An Abigroup spokesman said the ruling would bind all “necessary stakeholders and should ensure that work can restart on the Queensland Children’s Hospital project.”

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg, who has already expressed concerns about the hospital project running over time and budget, said the unions had ignored orders by Fair Work Australia to return to work.

“The unions are the ones to blame because they are defying the orders of Fair Work Australia. Abigroup has complied with what their responsibilities are,” he said.

“This sort of carry-on from the unions, which is now looking very illegal, has to stop. This is now in its fifth week and we need people to get back to work.”